Challenge

Mobility services are changing, and automotive suppliers need to act fast. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)—whether traditional or new players—expect them to be as innovative as they are.

With autonomous vehicles on the horizon, more than the car’s driving functions are set to change. Car interiors are expected to become an extension of the home and office. For car sharing services, cockpit personalization means that users can hop in a car in Los Angeles or New York and have their customized settings and services at their fingertips.

With such disruptive changes to mobility models, auto OEMs and their suppliers need to transform the driving experience and provide a new range of services. Auto OEMs—traditional and new—are looking to their suppliers to provide more innovative concepts that will help differentiate their vehicles in the market.

A pioneering collaboration

Faurecia, one of the world's leading automotive technology companies, teamed up with Accenture to combine innovation expertise and co-invest in developing and scaling products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles.

Faurecia sought Accenture’s help in making this profound shift and bringing new digital products and services for connected and autonomous vehicles to market quickly. Faurecia collaborated with Accenture to develop new capabilities to develop and deliver these products and services, as well as support them in the field. The five-year arrangement aims to reinvent the onboard experience for passengers and accelerate mobility services innovation.

Strategy and Solution

Digital solutions at scale

Faurecia and Accenture are combining innovation expertise and co-investing to focus on two areas: cognitive technologies to reinvent the on-board user experience, and services to enhance comfort and wellness. Within this framework, they are conducting multiple innovation initiatives that apply digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, augmented and virtual reality, and blockchain to help bring new technologies to market faster. To drive these initiatives, Faurecia has created a “digital services factory” and, with the expert support from Accenture’s Innovation Architecture, ideates new concepts and prototypes, before launching and delivering marketable products and services at scale to auto OEMs.

Cockpit of the future

In just two months, Faurecia and Accenture created its first demo—the “cockpit of the future”—ready for Mobile World Congress and CES. The car cockpit incorporates multiple touch displays, state-of-the-art applications and a voice assistant that becomes the new user interface in the car to control in-vehicle entertainment and other functions. Accenture supported Faurecia and Parrot Automotive (a Faurecia subsidiary) in the design, build and run of the on-board cockpit and for the cloud services connecting it to Amazon Alexa. Accenture also helped design the personalized experience for passengers, working closely with Amazon to develop custom commands that can be understood and executed by Alexa. The cockpit goes beyond standard Alexa in-car solutions, with the ability to distinguish between different users who can access their home and personal technology settings. Although the demo now uses Alexa, the team made the solution multi-AI compliant as operability is key for the cockpit of the future. Faurecia and Accenture continue to develop the cockpit’s capabilities, as well as accelerate new products and services to market.

An extension of your home and office

With drivers spending, on average, 500 hours in their cars annually, the interior and related services can be as much as a differentiator for buyers as engine size or style. Faurecia’s Alexa services enable drivers to use their voice to adjust seat positions, start a seat massage, change climate settings, and upload video and music playlists. Since users can tap into the settings on their Alexa services at home or in the office, they can also consult and update to-do and shopping lists while in the vehicle or even get their car ready to drive by setting the climate control levels from the home. Drivers can also use Alexa to make an appointment with their garage and coordinate it with their calendar, without ever touching a phone. Since the cockpit’s Alexa services are set up to differentiate between different users, each passenger can direct Alexa to perform separate and personalized tasks.

With autonomous vehicles on the horizon, more than the car’s driving functions are set to change.

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Transformation

Reinventing the customer experience

With its innovative services, Faurecia is delivering greater personalization, convenience and comfort to transform the driving experience. Thanks to the cloud-based services, auto OEMs and their customers can quickly and easily benefit from the latest cockpit features and functionalities.

The digital services factory approach means that Faurecia can bring the best capabilities and resources to develop flexible, next-generation services for OEMs. More importantly, Faurecia can tailor hardware and digital services to an OEM’s needs. This approach is helping OEMs focus on their customers as much as cars.

Its new capabilities are helping Faurecia better compete in a charging mobility landscape with new:

Revenue streams

Faurecia is becoming a digital services provider with new opportunities to increase profitability & provide greater value to OEMs and their customers.

Digital ecosystem

Faurecia taps into the digital ecosystem, including businesses like Fjord & Mackevision to bring innovative products and services to market faster.

Ways of working

In Faurecia’s digital factory, small, proactive teams work on projects in start-up mode, coordinating inputs from many different technical experts.

Innovation capabilities

Faurecia has the ability to deliver real, bottom-line impact, translating innovative technologies into marketable products and services at scale.

The future

Faurecia’s pioneering collaboration with Accenture will continue to take new and emerging technologies to the next level to shape the future of the automotive industry.